Powder coating wheels | The Garage Journal

86turbodsl

Well-known member

Joined

Jul 1,

Messages

6,398

Location

Michigan

• Apr 1,

• #1

I have 8 wheels to powder coat for a trailer.

I have no gun yet, and don't want to pay anyone to do it. I want to learn on something like these wheels.

So i need a gun, and need to figure out how much powder to buy.

Does anyone have recommendations on a good starter gun and how much powder to buy? To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!

nefarmboy

Member

Joined

Feb 21,

Messages

12

• Apr 1,

• #3

I have the Eastwood dual voltage one that I have had for 10 years or more. Don’t use it a lot but it always gets the job done. I haven’t tried wheels but someday I have some that I need to try coating. There isn’t much to the powder guns. Main thing is keeping the powder and air dry.

Edit to add that the powder goes pretty far. I would take a guess that you could do 8 wheels with about 2-3 lbs powder.

Crow Horse

Well-known member

Joined

Dec 22,

Messages

308

Location

Southern Tier, NY

• Apr 1,

• #4

steel or aluminum wheels?
The most important steps in a successful powder coat job is prep/wash/phosphatizing and proper bake times and temps.

The phosphatizing process (zinc or iron) creates a conversion coating (crystaline structure)) which not only provides tooth for the powder coat but also corrosion resistance. This is something that you might not be able to do at home.

Obviously you'll need an oven large enough to accommodate the wheels and capable of reaching the temp that the powder mfg. specs so that the powder can correctly cross link.

I don't mean to sound discouraging but I worked in the pc dept of a large fabrication shop for 11 years. To try to do this at home properly is iffy at best when you're trying to create a surface finish that not only looks good but is durable. It might look good now but in a year and it starts to peel, you've created a much larger project to correct. I've seen it happen on a large scale projects caused by someone taking shortcuts in the prep and wash phase. Last edited: Apr 1,

Crow Horse

Well-known member

Joined

Dec 22,

Messages

308

Location

Southern Tier, NY

• Apr 1,

• #5

Obviously, the link below for Gema powder coating guns isn't affordable for the home DIYer, but it does showcase the complexity of a good pc gun. We had 10 or more of these bad boys.....

86turbodsl

Well-known member

Joined

Jul 1,

Messages

6,398

Location

Michigan

• Apr 1,

• #6

Steel wheels. 16" dually wheels from an old trailer. I need to powder coat them before i put the tires on.

Crow Horse

Well-known member

Joined

Dec 22,

Messages

308

Location

Southern Tier, NY

• Apr 1,

• #7

What's your game plan for an oven?

harley jim

Well-known member

Joined

Dec 6,

Messages

11,027

Location

Cleveland Tn..........out in the sticks

• Apr 1,

• #8

I just called my powder coater he said one coat for 8 rims would be two lbs. He recommends two coats on trailer rims. He has a high dollar set up so maybe get an extra lb. just to be safe. The typical heat is 400 degrees. I have known several people that have used kitchen ovens to PC and had good success. A buddy of mine built an insulated steel box and put the oven element and controller in it so he could hang things. Good luck.

Sent from my SM-A102U using The Garage Journal mobile app

Crow Horse

Well-known member

Joined

Dec 22,

Messages

308

Location

Southern Tier, NY

• Apr 1,

• #9

I just called my powder coater he said one coat for 8 rims would be two lbs. He recommends two coats on trailer rims. He has a high dollar set up so maybe get an extra lb. just to be safe. The typical heat is 400 degrees. I have known several people that have used kitchen ovens to PC and had good success. A buddy of mine built an insulated steel box and put the oven element and controller in it so he could hang things. Good luck.

Sent from my SM-A102U using The Garage Journal mobile app

2 coats? You must explain that. The general rule of thumb is you can't go more than 3 "coats" which means 1 original and 2 reworks. After that, it's scrapped.
Mil thickness is the true measure.

harley jim

Well-known member

Joined

Dec 6,

Messages

11,027

Location

Cleveland Tn..........out in the sticks

• Apr 1,

• #10

Everything is stripped to bare metal and heated to around 300 degrees then first coat applied heat cycled through to 400 then he typically puts a second coat and runs another heat cycle. And yes mil thickness is important and imperative with a couple of his commercial accounts.

Sent from my SM-A102U using The Garage Journal mobile app

MushCreek

Well-known member

Joined

Jan 14,

Messages

9,071

Location

Upstate South Carolina

• Apr 2,

• #11

Slightly OT- Anyone know how much a typical shop charges to prep and powder coat a wheel? Assume dirty, old paint, etc. Nothing fancy; stock 16" steel wheels.

86turbodsl

Well-known member

Joined

Jul 1,

Messages

6,398

Location

Michigan

• Apr 2,

• #12

What's your game plan for an oven?

I have a dedicated electric house oven. Just big enough for the wheels to fit.

86turbodsl

Well-known member

Joined

Jul 1,

Messages

6,398

Location

Michigan

• Apr 2,

• #13

Slightly OT- Anyone know how much a typical shop charges to prep and powder coat a wheel? Assume dirty, old paint, etc. Nothing fancy; stock 16" steel wheels.

I had my wheels sandblasted by a local guy. He charged 200 for that. The powder coating quote took my breath away. Thus the DIY attitude. It's not a cadillac trailer. It's just an old gooseneck that needs to haul scrap cars in to clean the yard. I could just paint the wheels, but that wouldn't last long i think in this climate. the original finish was powder coat.

californiamilleghia

Well-known member

Joined

Apr 11,

Messages

526

Location

SoCal

• Apr 2,

• #14

Any truth to the problem of lug nuts coming loose because the powdercoat around the lug holes breaks off when you tighten the lug nuts ?

Crow Horse

Well-known member

Joined

Dec 22,

Messages

308

Location

Southern Tier, NY

• Apr 2,

• #15

I had my wheels sandblasted by a local guy. He charged 200 for that. The powder coating quote took my breath away. Thus the DIY attitude. It's not a cadillac trailer. It's just an old gooseneck that needs to haul scrap cars in to clean the yard. I could just paint the wheels, but that wouldn't last long i think in this climate. the original finish was powder coat.

Just curious, what was the quote? Even though I was working in the pc dept., I have no idea what the prices shops are charging.

There is a member on the forum, Cudachick IIRC, that does amazing custom PC work. I wonder if she's still around and hopefully chime in. Last edited: Apr 2,

86turbodsl

Well-known member

Joined

Jul 1,

Messages

6,398

Location

Michigan

• Apr 2,

• #16

Around 800.

Sent from my LG-TP450 using Tapatalk

Crow Horse

Well-known member

Joined

Dec 22,

Messages

308

Location

Southern Tier, NY

• Apr 2,

• #17

Being that the wheels have been blasted, you might want to also consider "priming" them with a zinc primer pc prior to the top coat. Doing so will provided the best corrosion protection.

Powder coating is a very deep rabbit hole to go down. My feeling is that if you are going to do it, you'll still want to see great results 5 or more years down the road. Sometimes a little extra effort in the beginning produces huge dividends down the road.

I do recognize that there are budgetary restrictions and sometimes one has no choice but to take some shortcuts.

Crow Horse

Well-known member

Joined

Dec 22,

Messages

308

Location

Southern Tier, NY

seagull369

Well-known member

Joined

Jan 16,

Messages

227

• Apr 2,

• #19

Are you dead set on PC? Epoxy primer with a urethane top coat is no slouch when it comes to corrosion and wear resistance.

Crow Horse

Well-known member

Joined

Dec 22,

Messages

308

Location

Southern Tier, NY

• Apr 2,

• #20

Are you dead set on PC? Epoxy primer with a urethane top coat is no slouch when it comes to corrosion and wear resistance.

X2. I had 2 bumper guards/bull bars finished with Bullet Liner (poly urea ?). That stuff is tough as nails. It is serious armor..... To avoid these ads, REGISTER NOW!

The Cobbler

Super Moderator

Joined

Oct 24,

Messages

24,007

Location

Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada

• Apr 2,

• #21

I'm thinking you could have almost bought new wheels for what it cost you to sandblast them.
If it were me, I would experiment with powder coat on something smaller, and prime & paint these the traditional way . (primer & urethane paint)

MushCreek

Well-known member

Joined

Jan 14,

Messages

9,071

Location

Upstate South Carolina

• Apr 3,

• #22

The wheels I have are way less new than those PC prices. Looks like I'll just spray them with whatever I use on the bumpers and grille.

joey

Well-known member

Joined

Jun 14,

Messages

1,813

Location

NE Ohio

• Apr 3,

• #23

I have an older Craftsman powder coating kit that I bought years ago that does great work.

I have seen results from the Harbor Freight kits and the Eastwood ones and they have all been good.

Any one of those kits would do the job.

86turbodsl

Well-known member

Joined

Jul 1,

Messages

6,398

Location

Michigan

• Apr 3,

• #24

Any truth to the problem of lug nuts coming loose because the powdercoat around the lug holes breaks off when you tighten the lug nuts ?

Mine has washers under nuts, so not that i noticed.

86turbodsl

Well-known member

Joined

Jul 1,

Messages

6,398

Location

Michigan

• Apr 3,

• #25

Are you dead set on PC? Epoxy primer with a urethane top coat is no slouch when it comes to corrosion and wear resistance.

Well, if i'm getting into epoxy primer and urethane topcoats i think i'm up into big money territory from my experience. Painting anything isn't cheap either!

86turbodsl

Well-known member

Joined

Jul 1,

Messages

6,398

Location

Michigan

• Apr 3,

• #26

I'm thinking you could have almost bought new wheels for what it cost you to sandblast them.
If it were me, I would experiment with powder coat on something smaller, and prime & paint these the traditional way . (primer & urethane paint)

If i had paid for the pc then yes, i think that statement would have been true. Remember these are dually wheels though, and they are not that common to run across.

Crow Horse

Well-known member

Joined

Dec 22,

Messages

308

Location

Southern Tier, NY

• Apr 3,

• #27

I contacted the powder coater that I formerly worked with and here is his reply copy/pasted.

"100 dollars per wheel seems like a lot

I am sure it could be done for 50 a wheel

The person charging that much thinks that your friend is an ill informed consumer

Even if the wheels were 19 inch, I would only use about 6 lbs of primer and 4 lbs of paint. Primer is $7 per pound and paint is about the same. Between washing, painting and curing, it would be about 1.5 hours

Even at $35 per hour, plus paint propane and cleansing agent, it would add up to about 300 bucks.

Which is why I said 50 per wheel would be fair, as that is 400 total"

86turbodsl

Well-known member

Joined

Jul 1,

Messages

6,398

Location

Michigan

• Apr 3,

• #28

maybe we're just high around here. to be honest, i didn't find much interest in even doing the job from the local guys.

tarbellb

Well-known member

Joined

Apr 17,

Messages

5,212

Location

Oregon

• Apr 3,

• #29

$50-100/wheel for blast and paint is what ive been quoted

variables are complexity of wheel (dually ^ $), special powders, and how busy they are.

seagull369

Well-known member

Joined

Jan 16,

Messages

227

• Apr 4,

• #30

Well, if i'm getting into epoxy primer and urethane topcoats i think i'm up into big money territory from my experience. Painting anything isn't cheap either!

I didn't catch how big your rims are but I doubt using the combo would run anywhere near $50 a wheel. If you don't have the spraying equipment, Spray Max (and a few other brands) sell 2k rattle cans in both. Forgoing the epoxy and using just a 1k etch on the primer would save some $ and probably give some good results, too. Just a thought...

86turbodsl

Well-known member

Joined

Jul 1,

Messages

6,398

Location

Michigan

• Apr 5,

• #31

i have spraying equipment. I just spent a lot of money on paint last time i did it, and i can't imagine cost went down any. Do you have recommendations on a brand of durable paint that a normal mortal can purchase somewhere? The pc idea was more about not having to redo the job in 5 years because the wheels were rusty again.j

paredown

Well-known member

Joined

Jan 12,

Messages

544

Location

Pomona, NY

• Apr 5,

• #32

I also had my Toyota truck wheels power coated--local guy with a backyard shop, I think I found him because he was highly recommended on a car forum.

He had a real nice backyard shop and powder coat setup, and was doing lots of manifolds and valve covers for the kids fixing up their cars. I think I paid around $75/wheel for alloy--blast and coat. They came back perfect, and still look (almost) too nice for the truck a few years on...

gungatim

Well-known member

Joined

Jan 8,

Messages

8,101

Location

west mich

• Apr 5,

• #33

LGR Last edited: Nov 14,

86turbodsl

Well-known member

Joined

Jul 1,

Messages

6,398

Location

Michigan

• Apr 5,

• #34

Well, the trailer isn't scrap, but it could get fixed up into a pretty valuable trailer. 25+5 ft tandem dual wheel, 20K GVW, gooseneck that i want to add a hydraulic dovetail to. About a 10K value trailer i bought for 3K.

gungatim

Well-known member

Joined

Jan 8,

Messages

8,101

Location

west mich

86turbodsl

Well-known member

Joined

Jul 1,

Messages

6,398

Location

Michigan

• Apr 5,

• #36

No worries. I have about a dozen scrap cars I need to haul in to clean the yard up.

Sent from my LG-TP450 using Tapatalk

Jagmandave

Well-known member

Joined

Nov 6,

Messages

6,153

Location

Overland Park, Ks.

• Apr 5,

• #37

$75 a wheel is the usual quote around here in KC - for 8 wheels that would be $600

PCMusicGuy

Well-known member

Joined

Feb 15,

Messages

839

Location

Houston, TX

• Apr 5,

• #38

Powdercoating in the Houston area is pretty close to $100 a wheel as well.

Steve in SoCal

Well-known member

Joined

Jan 27,

Messages

3,294

Location

Hutchinson Ks.

• Apr 5,

• #39

I have a friend in Bay City/Saginaw that uses a local guy, wheels 40~50 each.

Steve

I have a set of rims that I would like to powdercoat.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit our website.

They came to me with one wheel sandblasted(?) to a satin finish which means the texture doesn't match the texture of the other 3.

I am presuming I will need the texture of all 4 to match or they won't look the same once they are powdercoated, correct?

The other 3 rims have some sort of clear coat on them and at the moment I am presuming that is clear powdercoating, but it needs to come off.

I am looking for glass beads so that I can bead blast the other, but so far no one has any in stock.

So other than texture I am wondering about how far up the lip should I blast and powder coat? It seems that going all the way to the edge is likely to get scratched when they are mounting new tires.

I can protect the 3 with tape(?) while I blast them, but the other rim is blasted all the way to the edge and all the way across the barrel so, presuming I shouldn't powder coat to the edge and that I need to match textures, how do I smooth the edge of the rim that's already blasted?

And is that going to take me weeks and weeks of polishing to get it looking good? And how do I get a hard line finish between the polish and the satiny finish?

This was to wait till spring time, but I just noticed that I've corded the tires currently on the car and I see no sense in putting an interim set of tires on since I intend to replace both the tires and the rims (they are different diameters than the powdercoated rims).

How much bead blasting material would you think I'd need for 3 rims? It comes in 50 lb bags. Is 1 enough?

If you want to learn more, please visit our website YD Powder Coating.

I'd blast all the wheels. The sand blasting will leave them with a matte finish. As long as there's no obvious pits or scratches, the powdercoat will make them nice and smooth and shiny. Spray them off with non clorinated brake cleaner or mineral spirits. Put them in the oven for about 10 mins and let them outgas. Pull them out (carefully) and hang them up with wire on something. Spray them off with non clorinated brake cleaner or mineral spirits. This will make sure the aluminum is clean and free of debris and gas (keeps the powdercoating from bubbling). If you're only going to do part of the wheel, then regular masking tape will work. Use cork to plug up the bolt holes! Most important! Different powdercoatings will have different finishes. Check with Eastwood for whatever colors or finishes you want.

If you're only going to blast part of the wheels, then a piece of aluminum/steel/wood/anything will be your best bet to protect the other parts against the all removing blasting media.

carguy123 wrote: Since many wheels come from the factory with powder coating I'm not worried. These will be my street rims. Wheels get a lot of heat cycles and those degree brake temps bleed over in the rims with no deleterious effects so I'm not really worried even if they were race rims. It's the prep, how far out toward the rim is it a good idea and would the satin texture be noticeable vs. the stock glossy texture or do I need to rough up all of the rims? And if wheel texture matters that much and I shouldn't carry the powdercoat all the way to the edge, what's an easy way to polish up the lip of the rim that's already been blasted? And keep a good clean edge between polished (smoother) and the textured area?

The sand blasting will rough up the wheel enough for the powdercoating to stick.

Sand blast, don't bead blast. Get a rather fine media to do it too. We used a really abrasive black sand media once... Worked great for cast iron, not so great for aluminum.

Polishing is OK, but if you have someone near by who polishes, it's well worth the cash to have them do it. We had a couple of guys who we'd use, but we'd let them know it was no rush, as long as we got them by the end of the month or so. It cost us MAYBE $20 a wheel at most and they'd be damn near chrome. Check around and get friendly with some people.

OR... If you have a bench grinder, get the polishing kit from Eastwood and get to work.

It's the aging of the material that will be affected by the powdercoating process. The aging part of the T6 process involves holding the wheels at 350F for 10 hours. Since powdercoating takes the wheels up to around 400F for another 30 minutes or more, you're over-aging the alloy. Aging is a function of temperature and time, not just temperature.

You don't get your wheels up to 400F and hold them there on a track. I've done enough wheel changes on cars in endurance races to know that they're below the boiling point of water when the cars come in for a tire change.

Is it a definite no-no to powdercoat wheels? Nope. The temperatures are borderline and it may even come down to the sort of powder being used and the temperature ranges for it. There's a lot of disagreement on internet forums with posts such as "i had mine done 10 years ago and they're fine" and "a guy in our club had it done and all four wheels cracked". You know the saying, the plural of anecdote is not data. But based on my investigations and conversations with people in the wheel business as opposed to the powdercoat business, it's something I'd recommend avoiding if possible.

Painting will not hurt your wheels. Powdercoating may not - but it might. On a set of lightweight wheels that will be supporting my race tires as I peel into a 100 mph corner, I'm going to go with the safe option.

The company is the world’s best Automobile Wheels Powder Coating supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.